Stop, Frisk, Record

Last fall, Jason Van Anden, a computer developer from Brooklyn, made an app called I’m Getting Arrested for Occupy Wall Street protesters. Now, he has designed an app for people who see other people who may be about to get arrested.

The app’s basic purpose is to record video and send it directly to the civil liberties organization’s servers, which it does automatically once recording stops. The app then prompts the user to provide specific information about the episode, including the badge number of the police officers involved and whether they used force or threatening language during the stop. It is available in Spanish as well as English.

This is a tool designed with its potential to cause conflict in mind. The video can be started and stopped by shaking the phone, and a setting will lock the phone once the video is stopped.

There is also a “listen” function, which shows if there are other people using the app nearby. This was devised specifically for community groups that monitor police actions; it allows them to keep track of other activists. Steve Kohut, a resident of the Lower East Side who has been participating in police watches for years, described the app as a way to get more people involved in the monitoring. But he acknowledged the potential the app has to get people into trouble.

Photo

Credit
Christoph Hitz

“It’s a tool like anything else; you can’t just grab it and run amok,” he said. “You have to be trained, because things can get out of hand.” He also cautioned people against trying to use the app if they themselves were being stopped and frisked.

Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman, laid out of laundry list of concerns. He said that real-time information about the locations of police stops could be used by criminals. He also raised privacy concerns, questioning whether videos would end up on YouTube after they were in the Civil Liberties Union’s possession. Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, dismissed the idea that such videos could appear on YouTube either deliberately or accidentally.

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At the same time, Mr. Browne said, the Police Department would be interested in seeing the videos and potentially calling those who had recorded them as witnesses.

The Civil Liberties Union said it would allow people to use the videos as evidence in court. But that presents one privacy concern: Could the identity of an ostensibly anonymous user be determined if the Civil Liberties Union was subpoenaed? That might be possible, Mr. Van Anden said, but would most likely require the cooperation of wireless companies or Internet service providers.

Of course, the Civil Liberties Union and the Police Department aren’t, in the end, disagreeing over features or potential security issues, but over whether an app like this should even exist.